This invention relates to hair trimming appliances. The invention relates more particularly to an improved, electrically energized hair trimmer which permits an individual to trim his own hair or an untrained person to trim another person's hair without gouging, overcutting or causing damage to a hair style.
Maintenance of personal hair styles between style changes is generally provided by trimming and thinning of the hair. It is desirable both from a convenience and from an economic viewpoint to provide an electrically energized trimmer device for hair style maintenance which can be used by individuals to trim their own hair or alternatively which can be operated in trimming of another person's hair by a person without professional training. Principal limitations in trimming one's own hair or having it trimmed by a person without professional training are inexperience in handling powered hair trimmers and, in the case of timming one's own hair, the limited view which a person can have of his head while trimming. These considerations introduce a potential for gouging or overcutting a hair style which can result in damage to the hair style. This is particularly true with powered trimmers such as electrically energized trimmers which can rapidly cause extensive damage before such damage is realized.
Known hair trimming appliances have taken several forms. In one arrangement, a powered hair cutter means is provided and the problem of gouging and overcutting is simply left to the developing skill of a user in handling the trimmer. Another form of hair trimmer device is known in which it is attempted to avoid this problem by providing a means for maintaining the cutter at a predetermined distance from an individual's head during trimming thereby leaving a substantially uniform length of hair on a person's head. However, this form of trimmer is not useful with present day hair styles since trimming the hair to a uniform length would in most cases destroy the hair style. Other trimmer arrangements have been provided which include means for limiting the amount of hair accessible to the trimmer blades. While this latter arrangement limits overcutting to some extent, it is ineffective in limiting gouging, and it requires the acquisition of a moderate degree of skill in its use.
What is desirable and what I have provided in accordance with features of my invention is a powered hair trimming device which an individual can draw through his hair in the same type of simple combing motion as is used in styling the hair while having the assurance that the trimmer will shear only distal segments of the hair having substantially a predetermined length.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved electrically powered hair trimmer for use by an individual for self-trimming of his hair or by a person without professional training for trimming another person's hair and which is adapted to eliminate overcutting or gouging of a hair style.
Another object of the invention is to provide a hair trimmer which shears distal hair segments, the majority of such segments having a substantially uniform length.
Another object of the invention is to provide a hair trimmer having adjustable means for cutting segments of hair of selectable, substantially uniform lengths.